Aylesbury High School Prepare,Challenge & Inspire
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Feby 2019 Wil , wo’t o, wi y, wo’t o? Inertia is very tempting, and it’s normally easiest to say, “No”, or “Can’t be bothered” and staying firmly in one’s comfort zone, and under the real or metaphorical duvet. However, AHS students have been busy ‘seizing the day’ this half term and making the most of every opportunity as will be apparent when you read these pages. Our ears are still buzzing from two wonderful House Music evenings where the 23 Year 12 House Captains did a great job organising 201 performers to interpret the theme of Inspiring Women. Looking forward, a good number of students (167 at the last count) are travelling to Washington, Spain (2), Gibraltar, France and Italy over half term, so bon voyage to all of them. As will be evident from Highlights, students and staff alike have put in an enormous amount of effort this half term, both in and out of the classroom, so I hope everyone has a well-deserved break next week and, whether or not on a school trip, returns refreshed and ready to make the most of every opportunity that turns up at AHS - if in doubt, go for it! Alan Rosen Aylesbury High School Prepare,Challenge & Inspire For the latest school news, visit: www.ahs.bucks.sch.uk Follow us on Twitter: @aylesburyhigh German Debating Competition At the end of last term, four students from Year 12 competed in a German speaking competition against the Royal Grammar School, in High Wycombe, organised by the Goethe Institut. We had to debate the question “Should a year abroad in Europe be compulsory for school children?” Aylesbury High School was given the ‘for’ argument, arguing that a compulsory year abroad in Europe would be beneficial. It was really tough debating in German, with only brief notes to help us, but it definitely improved our confidence. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it through to the next round, as the boys from the Royal Grammar School were just a bit better than us, but it was good fun, and we would definitely recommend it for the future. Eleanor Terrett 12A Redshift Racing at the F1 In Schools Regional Finals For the past 5 months, we have been working to design, manufacture and present a scaled down F1 race car for the National F1 In Schools competition. In addition to the car, the teams must put together a presentation, portfolio and display. Each team member has played a vital role; Sita Mojaria acted as Team Manager, Gul Kaur used her developing A-Level physics knowledge to become the team’s Design Engineer, both myself and Pritika Ganguly acted as Manufacture Engineers, Gauri Mojaria played a vital role as Resource Manager and Amelie Austen was our Graphics Designer. On the day itself, we raced, presented and explained our engineering methods to a variety of judges, ranging from aerospace and motorsport engineers to business and marketing directors. We were delighted to pick up multiple awards, including verbal presentation, team identity and fastest car. We ended the day placing 3rd overall in the London North regional development class, and will now be competing in the National Championships in Chester in March. Now all we’ve got to do is fundraise enough to get there - please see more details on the next page! A big thank you to all of our sponsors who’ve helped us this far, and to the Technology department especially for their support. Emily Reynolds 12H Can el ? Future Chef Competition 2018/9 On 11 January we took part in the Future Chef competition at Aylesbury College. We and seven other contestants had 90 minutes to complete a main course and dessert for two people. Although neither of us managed to get through to the next round, both of us really enjoyed the experience and learnt many useful skills and techniques from the three professional chefs. Time management was key in order to complete both courses as well as learning to adapt to the new kitchen environment. After presenting our meals, we were fortunate to be able to discuss our strengths and weaknesses with a famous chef from The Landmark Hotel in London. He was able to give us constructive comments in order to improve our cooking styles, techniques and presentation in the future. All the extra knowledge that we gained will be extremely beneficial for our GCSE Food Preparation & Nutrition exams. We felt honoured to be able to represent the school and were inspired to apply for the competition again next year. Most importantly, we especially enjoyed eating our dishes afterwards! Annie Thorndike and Sophie Barrett Year 10 Congratulations to our winners: Chantelle Arulanandam 12J, Hannah Bush 8C, Mady Carter 8C, Rifaah Choudhury 7H, Sophie Flecknell 13A, Caitlin Maggs 8S, Katie Pine 9A and Aditi Sharma 8H. We look forward to the grand final which will take place amid our other 60th birthday celebrations on Saturday 6 July - save the date! In January, Year 8 had the opportunity to spend a week in Aberdyfi, Wales. In the five days we were there, we made many new friends, we were pushed outside of our comfort zones and overall had one of the most amazing experiences ever. We had the chance to participate in numerous fun activities, including gorge walking, mountain scrambling and sleeping in a log cabin. We are very grateful to all of the teachers and instructors who supported us along such a great journey. Shaiyana Suresh and Vivian Sellors 8C During wider reading for our economics course, we discovered The Undercover Economist written by the award winning economist Tim Harford. After finding out that he and his siblings attended the High and Grammar Schools, we invited him to speak to students and parents. Tim Harford delivered a fantastic speech on the topic of statistics and how they can not only help us but can also be used to deceive us. He discussed the way in which statistics can be used to prove a point and also emphasised the way in which statistics are commonly used to introduce doubt as well giving tips on how to recognise reliable statistics. We’d like to thank the Year 12 students, the economics department and everyone else who helped organise the evening . Thank you to everyone who attended and for those who could not be there, there will be a video of the talk on the website shortly. Anika Kiadhra 12Y Year 12 Psychology Experiments For our first psychology project we worked as a team to investigate the question: ‘How does syntax affect the recall of a list of words?’ Before we could start we had to choose the sample group, create a hypothesis and choose the conditions for the participants. Creating this experiment was quite a big responsibility as we had to carry it out as if we were psychologists in the real world, ensuring we had considered ethical issues such as consent and debriefing. After carrying out our chosen experiments we had to present our results to the class, followed by a seminar style discussion. On our A3 poster we critically analysed what we had found by answering questions such as ‘What do you think were the possible reasons for your outcomes?’ and ‘What were the weaknesses of your methods?’. We found that for our next project we should use a wider range of people such as men or women of a different age, as we were very limited with students aged 16-18; therefore next time we should be able to generalise our results. We really enjoyed this project and can’t wait for our next experiment! Abbie Garton, Olivia Forster, Kisani Vigneswararajah and Kiera Hollings - Y12 Psychology Subject Ambassadors Well done to all the students who took part in last term's Christmas Concert. It was an eclectic programme of super performances. Particular highlights included the ominous opening of Berlioz's March to the Scaffold (from Symphonie Fantastique) performed by Symphony Orchestra, the new Year 13 band 'Taking Back July' and Annie Alocious's beautiful carnatic singing. Thank you also to all the students who came along to Bartlett Residential Home in Stone to sing carols for the residents. The Winter Concert and Carol Service was a festive way to end the term, set in St. Mary's Church in Aylesbury. The choir sang the carols beautifully and finished the evening with a lovely performance of Moon River. The a cappella group wowed the audience with Beth Lewin's arrangement of O Holy Night. Ms Raven Thank you to everyone who entertained us with two fantastic evenings of music, and to the staff, tech team and support staff who helped make it possible. Best large choral performance: A Million Dreams, Claydon Best choral arrangement: Power to the People, Beth Lewin Best instrumental arrangement: Charlotte Thompson Best small choir: Hey There Delilah, Hughenden Best solo: Roseanna Schmidt Best small ensemble: Space Jazz Medley, Stowe 3rd Claydon 2nd Ascott 1st Hughenden Well done to all our U13 and U15 cricket teams who played brilliantly in the Lady Taverners tournament. Our U15 girls are through to the next regional round, following a strong batting performance, accurate bowling and tight fielding. Rachael Jackson Secondary Schools Tennis Cup Ellen Harding and Allegra Michopoulou represented AHS in the Tennis Cup last month and progressed through the round robin stages to meet SHFGS in the final. Although SHFGS won in the end, our students played more tennis then anyone else and did a super job. Head Coach at Halton, James Morgan said, “They played really well in the final and it was hotly contested.